China
China Law of Physical Education and Sport The China Law of Physical Education and Sport (China Ministry of Education, 1995) established 7 mandates with which schools must comply: *PE is a regular part of school education *PE classes are listed as an academic course that is regularly assessed and sufficient to meet the *needs of special students *Time must be allocated for students to participate in physical activities every day to meet national fitness standards *A variety of after school activity programs, training, and sports competitions are provided; annually, a school wide physical activity and sport meet is conducted *Physical educators need to be qualified according to national regulations and should have benefits related to the job specifications *Physical activity fields, facilities and equipment must be used for physical activities only *Student physical examinations must be given and supervision of students’ fitness must be provided National Standards for Health & Physical Education in China China has developed national standards in part based on US standards (NASPE, 1995). In 2001 the China Ministry of Education (CME) published the first national standards for physical education and health, based on student outcomes, and ensuring that: *Are physically fit, demonstrate competency in many movement forms, and obtain knowledge and skills of physical activities and health *Participate regularly in physical activity *Demonstrate communication and cooperation among people *Demonstrate individual responsibility for personal and community health and exhibit a healthy lifestyle *Achieve a positive life attitude from physical education (from Liang, Walls & Lu, 2005) The China standards are similar to NASPE standards, paralleling a “Westernization” trend in Chinese sport (China.org, 2004). Unlike NASPE standards, the China national standards include both PE and Health. NASPE and China standards emphasize movement skills and concepts, fitness, personal responsibility and a healthy active lifestyle. China standards also address participation, communication and cooperation. Implementation There is considerable political support for physical education in China: *It is mandated that physical education be provided to grades one through 12 *Satisfactory completion of physical education is a requirement for advancement to the next grade level and for graduation. *Sanctions can be applied to schools that fail to provide one hour of physical activity each day, three after-school physical activity sessions and two physical education classes per week *Students who fail to participate for one-third of the class hours will not be considered as achieving the PE requirements for graduation. (China Education and Research Network, 2001) The PE mandates are very positive and protective of physical education (and sport) as a core part of the school curriculum. However, implementation has been inconsistent: *The scale of implementation is daunting. In China, 200,000,000 children in grades one through 12 receive physical education programming in 540,000 schools (People's Education Press, 2002) *Rural schools tend to have less funding but more physical education classes per week than urban schools. Qu (1998) found that 87% of schools in larger towns provided physical education classes 2 times or more per week. In smaller country towns, 82% provided classes 2 times or more each week *Wang et al. (2001) reported that schools provided physical education two or more times each week in 86% of cities, 92.7% of towns, and 100% of rural areas in the Shandong province Teacher qualifications are an issue in implementation (Liang et al, 2005): *Less than a third (30%) of China’s P.E. teachers have bachelor degrees or above (1% have graduate degrees). 58% of physical educators have associate degrees; 12% have only a high school diploma. *According to China’s Law of Educators, elementary teachers should hold a diploma from a 3 year teacher training school. Middle school teachers should hold a degree from a 2-3 year teacher college or bachelor’s degree; High school teachers a bachelors or masters degree. *There are height and fitness requirements for entrance to P.E. teacher training programs, as well as age (22 or younger) and marital status (unmarried) *PETE programs include traditional content but little in the way of teaching methodology, motor development/learning, or diversity. However, field experience and student teaching are required *